


A "Series"ous Revelation

by SombraMalamutt



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, Minor Angst, Watching the Show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-03-28 00:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13892835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SombraMalamutt/pseuds/SombraMalamutt
Summary: Phantom warned people not to make wishes.  All anyone had to do was fight the urge to say "I wish".  It was that simple.  He thought at the very least his biggest fan, Paulina, would listen.  However Desiree presents Paulina with an opportunity too tempting to pass up: The chance to learn as much about her precious ghost boy as she wants.  How will she fair when she learns the truth?  And how will Phantom fair when it's not just Paulina learning his secret, but everyone?





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does the title of this story contain a poorly conceived, terrible pun?
> 
> ...Yes.

Desiree growled.

Honestly it would it really kill one of these humans to make a wish? Any wish. Now that Phantom was watching over the town like a hawk, warning people not to recklessly do anything that might summon a vengeful spirit, finding poor unfortunate souls to grant wishes to had become increasingly rare. Of course, though, not everyone is as careful as the resident ghost teen and his entourage. All she had to do was keep searching. Someone was bound to slip up and utter those forbidden words in her presence.

She found herself loitering around Casper High. Why she did so, she hadn’t the slightest clue. Hanging around the school wasn’t the smartest idea. This was one of Phantom’s main haunts after all. Even if he refused to call it that. 

After giving the building a thorough look over from a distance, she floated closer to the grounds. The school was relatively quiet and devoid of life. Understandable really. Students rarely stick around after school hours unless they had a reason. Even the football team finished their training for the day.

Desiree slipped into the school, elegantly and quietly weaving her way through lockers and walls. She peeked in and out of classrooms, hoping to find one, single straggler. A student, teacher, janitor...anyone. The building couldn’t be completely empty…

“...I know! How does no one know about him?”

Desiree froze. Finally! Someone was still around. She silently zipped towards the direction of the voice, hearing it rise in volume as she approached. Invisibly she passed through the classroom door and found herself surrounded by a group of chatting high school girls and a few boys. Each of them sporting some article of clothing with Phantom’s annoying symbol and she fought to stop herself from groaning at the sight. One girl with long, black hair sat with her arms crossed over her chest, pouting.

“Look Paulina,” a muscular, blonde haired jock sighed, “we wanna know more about the ghost kid too, but like, it’s not like we can just ask him all this stuff. We don’t even know how to find him when he’s not fighting ghosts!”

A sly grin split across Desiree’s face. So they wanted to know about the ghost boy, huh?

“I know!” Paulina whined, “I just wi–”

“Shhhh!” the blonde haired girl beside her loudly shushed, having the audacity to try and cover Paulina’s mouth. Paulina slapped her hand away and the girl ushered her a quick apology. “I mean, you remember what Inviso-Bill said! Don’t say the ‘w’-word. You never know when that one genie ghost is listening!”

Paulina opened her mouth to chastise her friend for calling Phantom the wrong name, but the sound of deep, feminine chuckling stopped her. The laugh echoed around the room, freezing the teens in their tracks.

“Now, now...I’m not that terrible, am I?”

Green smoke billowed throughout the room and the teens huddle together wishing (internally anyways) that they had a way to contact the ghost kid. Or maybe even the Fentons if they were desperate enough...which they weren't. 

The smoke molded itself, slowly but surely, into a feminine form. Ample bosom, thin waist, wide hips. Thick, luxurious black hair took shape behind her. Her beauty only grew as her form solidified.

“What has that awful ghost child been telling you about me?” Desiree sweetly asked, red eyes wide with feigned sadness. “I hope he hasn’t been spreading lies about my wishes. I only want to bring happiness and prosperity to those around me. Isn’t there anything your heart desires? Anything at all?”

No one spoke a word. The teens kept huddled together, whimpering and squeaking and shutting their eyes tightly, silently praying the ghost would leave them be. Or at the very least they hoped the ghost boy would find and save them. 

Desiree’s chuckle deepened, chilling them down to the bone. “I see you seem to care for that ghost child. What was it you called him? Ah yes...Inviso-Bill.” She couldn’t keep her lips from twitching upward in delight. “I could help you learn about him, you know?”

Paulina’s eyes lit up. “Really?” 

“All knowledge about him can be yours. All you have to do is say the magic words.”

Desiree felt her lips splitting into a wide grin. The Paulina girl was easy. Shallow and self centered. Who cares if Phantom warned her against making wishes? She seemed like the sort of girl who would take advantage of a golden opportunity such as this without thinking of the consequences. Especially since the consequences were so unpredictable…

“Don’t do it,” the blonde girl whispered, frantically shaking her head, “You know what the ghost boy–”

“Yeah, I know what Phantom said!” Paulina grit out. She mutters a quick “ _¡Por Dios!_ ” under her breath. “But c’mon! How many times do we get the chance to learn about him? He wants to be super mysterious which yeah makes him so dreamy, but how will I ever know if he’s good boyfriend material if he won’t be honest with me?”

Even so, Paulina hesitated to speak the words sitting on the tip of her tongue. She’d hate to go against her precious ghost boy’s wishes and if he said that making a wish in the presence of the genie was a bad idea, she should listen. She wanted to listen but…

Temptation was one hell of a drug, intoxicating her with the promise of knowledge about the ghost boy. Knowledge about who he was, where he came from, and most importantly, the ways she could seduce him. And while, yes, the smart thing to do would be listen to him, she simply couldn’t let this opportunity pass. In time he’d understand. She needed to do this. For herself of course, but also for the others with her. The rest of the Phan Club. They deserved to know about him too. After all, were they not his biggest fans?

“What do you say, child?” Desiree asked. 

Time slowed and the atmosphere grew thick and heavy. Desiree’s seductive voice echoed in Paulina’s mind, mimicking her own selfish desires. Behind her, the rest of the Phan Club begged her not to say a word. Who knows what the consequences could be?

But what if it wasn’t so bad? The ghost boy never told them what the consequences for wish making were and if it was something they could handle, wouldn’t it be a worthy trade off?

Paulina met Desiree’s eyes. She’d made her decision.

“I wish…”

“No!” someone shouted. 

“...that we all knew more about the ghost boy!”

Desiree’s grin turned sharp and her hands glowed with pink energy. “So you have wished it…”

She snapped her fingers once. “...so shall it be.” 

For a second, nothing happened. 

Then everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Watching the show" fics are one of my secret loves. I'd started one for Miraculous Ladybug but 1) I think what I did write got lost when my last laptop stopped working and 2) I didn't know where to go with a show that wasn't finished. Plus there's not a lot of these that I found for the Phandom which is...a travesty.
> 
> I haven't decided the full type of humor I was gonna have. I'm mostly making this up as I go along so the rating might change later on.


	2. The Revelation (Mystery Meat Part 1)

“Paulina…? Paulina? C’mon, wake up…”

Someone’s voice cut through the fog in her mind. She wasn’t sure who it belonged to just yet. If she could, she would prefer to stay asleep just a little longer. Who would even dare trying to wake her up at this time of…

“Hey! I think she’s wakin’ up!”

Last she remembered, she shouldn’t even be asleep. She was at Casper High hosting a meeting of their official Phan Club. Then there was that genie ghost...She made a wish and…

“Ugh, what hit me?” Her eyes slowly opened to a blurry mass of light and color swirling above her. Blinking helped clear her vision and the blurred masses turned into the recognizable shapes of her friends. The closest to her being Star who helped her sit up and kept looking at her with concern. “What happened?”

“Your wish happened!” Star whisper yelled, “I dunno what’s going on, but it looks like everyone in Amity Park is here in this place...Wherever ‘this place’ is!” She flailed her arms wildly.

“Looks like a movie theater,” Dash supplied.

“Yeah, a giant one at that,” Kwan said.

Once her vision sufficiently cleared, Paulina took a look around her. They seemed to be in some dimly lit auditorium with stadium seating. At least the seats seemed comfortable as they were the cushioned, recliners all the newer, high end theaters were putting in. In front, there was a massive screen lit only with static.

Star wasn’t kidding when she said the entirety of Amity Park seemed to be present. While there were hundreds, if not thousands, of unfamiliar faces, those who seemed to be familiar to her were close by. She spotted Principal Ishiyama and Mr. Lancer comforting frightened nerds and their parents despite looking shaken themselves. Her own father was only a couple rows back, ranting angrily with Dash and Kwan’s parents. Valerie and her father were further up and for some reason, Valerie looked combative though most of her ire seemed focused in front of her at...Vlad Masters? The mayor? Paulina was confused about that, but quickly shrugged it off considering, she wasn’t supposed to care for Valerie anymore.

Vlad Masters, on the other hand, seemed to have his hands full dealing with irate citizens. She recognized the gaudy orange and teal jumpsuits of the Fentons, and she suspected the neatly dressed black couple were the Foleys, but she was at a loss when it came to the unnaturally perfect woman jabbing a perfectly manicured finger at Vlad’s chest and the equally unnaturally perfect man holding her back.

“Our children are missing, we’re stuck in God knows where, and you can’t do anything?! You’re the mayor! What did we elect you for!”

Paulina and the rest of her friends listened in, and she swore she saw a hint of red light up in the mayor’s eyes for a second before he closed them and started massaging his temples.

“For the last time, Mrs. Manson, I’m the mayor, not some sort of miracle worker,” he growled, “I can’t just snap my fingers and fix everything.”

“But you could wish for it,” a feminine voice taunted, chuckling deeply. Silence fell over the room and everyone’s attention shifted to the screen in front of them. The static shaped itself into a form quite familiar to Paulina and the rest of the jocks and cheerleaders. Hourglass shape, long, black hair, the green and teal tints bleeding in...Paulina’s hands flew to her mouth and she gasped.

“Ghost!” Jack cried, pulling an ecto-gun from some hidden pocket on his jumpsuit. The genie looking ghost scoffed.

“Please. What sort of fool do you mortals take me for? As if I would appear to you in this room knowing that it’s filled with hunters.” Desiree smirked and glanced over at the covering forms of Paulina and her popular friends. “I’m only here to fulfill a wish. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Once again, Paulina noted the hint of red in Mayor Masters’ eyes. “What wish?”

“Nothing that concerns you,” Desiree responded flippantly before considering her words, “Well...probably. It concerns our mutual enemy, Phantom, though.” 

Half the room perked up at the mention of the ghost boy’s name. 

“What does _he_ have to do with this?” Valerie growled. Hearing her refer to Phantom as ‘he’ and not ‘it’ for once was jarring. For as long as Paulina could remember, her ex-friend refused to humanize the ghost boy. For what reason, she wasn’t sure. Something about the ghost boy ruining her life. 

“And what’ve you done with our children?” Maddie growled, pointing her own ecto-gun at Desiree.

“One question at a time,” she chuckled, “First, Phantom has everything to do with this. The wish was about him, after all. To learn about his life. Or afterlife, as you all would put it. The boy keeps quite few secrets from those he promises to protect. Especially those closest to him. Secrets that we ghosts have been well aware of from day one. 

“As for your question, hunter, your children are safe and sound back in Amity Park, though I suspect they’ll be worried for your well being. It’s not everyday you can wander the streets and find them completely vacant. But I’ll bring them here. I just need them out the way until the timing is right.”

“Our kids know better than to defend you spooks!” Jack shouted.

Desiree just laughed. The rich sound echoed throughout the room, chilling Amity’s citizens to their core. Jack and Maddie stepped forward, keeping themselves between the ghost and the rest of Amity’s population. The action only made Desiree laugher harder.

“Oh, your children keep more from you than you realize,” she chuckled, “No matter. The truth will come to light soon enough so for now why not sit back, relax, and enjoy the show?”

Without warning or a parting message, the screen cuts out, leaving everyone far more confused than they started. Everyone, except for one Valerie Gray who stood shaking with fury. She turned her fiery teal gaze on the terrified huddle of A-listers sitting a few rows above her. 

“Paulina,” she growled slowly. She was straining to rein in her growing anger. “Why in the world would you make such a stupid wish?”

“Watch it, Gray!” Paulina’s father shouted, “What makes you think my daughter had anything to do with this?”

“Please,” Valerie scoffed, “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that girl’s insane crush on Phantom. It also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know Phantom’s gone around warning people about specific ghosts and what not to do around ‘em. Everyone knew not to make wishes around Desiree. Literally everyone. Because Desiree twists the wish. But someone still did it. So now we’re all here stuck in some oversized movie theater and we’re supposed to learn about Phantom. And yeah, while ghost hunters like the Fentons could’ve done it to learn about ‘im, there’s no reason for ‘em to trust a ghost like that. There’s no way they would’ve done it. Plus trusting a ghost like Desiree reeks of desperation. It’s the resort you’d take when there’s no other way to find out the information you wanna know. Y’know. The kind of desperate an obnoxious fan is when they wanna find out about their favorite celebrity but don’t have ‘round the clock access to ‘em, so gee...I wonder who did it!”

For a moment, Paulina was floored. She didn’t expect her ex-friend to be able to read her so easily. After all, they hadn’t spoken earnestly in nearly two years and she couldn’t be that predictable. Without missing a beat, she shook off her unease and glared down at Valerie.

“Why do you even care anyways? Don’t you hate the ghost boy or something? Wouldn’t learning about him work in your favor anyways? Same with the ghost hunters. If anything, you all should be thanking me!”

“Don’t you even think?!” Valerie interrupted. Her efforts to tamper her anger weakened by the millisecond. “Revealing Phantom’s secrets won’t just end with him! This involves anyone and everyone who’s connected with him in some way and some of us don’t want our dirty laundry aired like that! For once in your life, couldn’t you think about someone other than yourself?!”

As if to punctuate her frustration, the lights cut out and the massive screen lit up. Half the people in the auditorium shrieked, jumped, and flinched, startled at the sudden change. The screen lit up to show...Jack. Front and center on the screen. The shot zooms out enough to reveal he was in Fenton Works’ basement standing in front of Danny, Sam, and Tucker in the midst of giving some lecture about ghosts for some unknown reason.

**Danny: Uhh...actually dad, I want to be an astronaut.**

**Sam: Sorry, Mr. Fenton. I was into ghosts, but they're so mainstream now. They're like cellphones.**

**Tucker: Waste these looks and all this charisma hunting ghosts? Criminal.**

“Ewww!” Paulina shrieked and pointed at the screen, “Why’re we watching them!?”

Despite her disgusted tone, everyone agreed with her. Weren’t they supposed to be learning about Phantom? Certainly an eccentric ghost hunter and a couple of odd, nerdy kids didn’t really have any pertinent information on Phantom. Well maybe a ghost hunter would, no matter how eccentric, but somehow people doubted either Fenton parent would have detailed information on the all too human, white haired specter.

“Jack, what in the world is this?” Maddie asked.

“I...I don’t know, Mads,” he said, not taking his eyes off the screen, “This is from a little over two years ago. Right after the portal started working. I thought the kids were interested in ghost hunting so I wanted to teach them something…”

Whatever Jack was going to say trailed off as he kept focus on the screen, watching as a strange blue mist blew out from Danny’s lips. He didn’t see that the first time around. Stranger still, Danny didn’t seem shocked by the mist.

“What was that?” Maddie asked. “The lab can’t be that cold, can it?”

“If it was, you’d see everyone’s breath, wouldn’t you?” Angela said, “You can only see Danny’s plus usually if you see your breath, it’s not blue.” 

**_Seconds later, the view cuts to the portal doors opening and two octopus looking ghosts flying out of it. From the looks of it, only Danny, Sam, and Tucker noticed the ghost while Jack kept happily blathering on about his many inventions, completely oblivious to the ghastly beasts attacking the children. One ghost takes hold of Sam. The other grabs Tucker. Danny just looks up, worried and shocked._ **

“You idiot!” Pamela shouts, hitting Jack on the arm, “How could you not see all this going on?! This is why we don’t want our Sammy around you!”

“Hold on!” Maddie scowled as she turned to face Pamela, “Jack had to have done something! Our kids are completely safe now…”

“But I didn’t do anything,” Jack interrupted.

Maddie’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

“I didn’t save them. The first time I ever saw a ghost was when I saw the ghost kid for the first time a few days later. I...didn’t do anything here.”

“But the only other person in there was Danny,” Angela said.

“There’s no way Fenturd could’ve saved ‘em! He’s too much of a wuss,” Dash scoffed, forgetting Danny’s parents were in the room. He flinched under Maddie’s intense glare, making a mental note to avoid insulting Danny while she was around. Not that he was wrong. Danny was always running away from ghosts. At least while he was around… 

Except Danny did save his friends. While his father blathered on and on about some thermos and the massive portal behind him, Danny’s expression turned to one of sheer determination. He leaps off screen and there’s a bright flash that momentarily turns the screen white. Jack wasn’t sure how he missed that initially. It was blinding even on screen.

“What in the world was that light?” Maddie wondered aloud despite knowing no one had an answer for her.

Everyone kept watching as there seemed to be some sort of struggle off screen. Behind Jack’s incessant chattering, there were sounds of a scuffle. An ectopus flies past Jack without him knowing. Eventually Sam and Tucker were tossed back into their chairs. Both ectopuses appeared dizzy in front of the Fenton Portal. They retreat back into it and it closes behind them.

**_Once again there was a bright flash of light off screen and once it clears, it cuts over to Danny standing there looking winded._ **

**Jack: And that? That is the Fenton Portal. It releases ghosts into our world whether I want it to or not. And someday, I'll figure out how that works too. Now, who wants to hunt some ghosts?**

By all accounts, no one could make sense of what happened. Apparently Danny...small, scrawny, ‘terrified of ghosts’ Danny Fenton...saved his two friends from ghosts that attacked them? Sure, they didn’t see it, but context clues couldn’t be ignored. Jack was too caught up in his own world to notice the kids being attacked. Sam and Tucker were captured. The only one left was Danny. 

Jack and Maddie, while feeling proud that their son inherited some of their ghost fighting genes, were left dumbfounded. How did he even fight those creatures without a single weapon? Or at least it didn’t seem like he had any weapons on him. Maybe those flashes were from ecto-guns? Except wouldn’t those flashes be green? And they’d never been that blinding… 

“I guess we owe Danny some gratitude,” Pamela conceded, “Samantha might’ve been worse off if he didn’t save her.”

“Same with Tucker,” Angela added, “I guess he learned something about ghost hunting from you guys. Even though he never seemed particularly interested in it.”

“I...guess,” Maddie said. They were wrong of course. In recent years, Danny hadn’t been particularly interested in their inventions or ghosts. Planets and stars were his main interest. So how did he fight off those ghosts?

The footage didn’t give them much time to ponder this as it faded to the Fenton’s kitchen. Maddie continues work on what seems to be a new invention of sorts. Jazz is reading a book, only looking up momentarily to give her mother an annoyed glare. Danny’s eating his breakfast. All in all the scene (minus Maddie using a blowtorch) was rather...normal. 

Up until the point where a spoon falls through Danny’s hand.

“Did...did that spoon go through Danny’s hand?” Maurice asked.

“Always knew he was a freak,” Paulina muttered, still angry that she wasn’t learning about Phantom just yet.

This time, Maddie didn’t even bother giving a reprimanding glare at the offending comment. She just kept watching her son grow more flustered at his intangible and invisible limb. Flustered and fearful, but not shocked or mortified. More like he knew this was a possibility and he didn’t want anyone to find out…

“Intangibility and invisibility are ghostly attributes and Danny’s quite alive...right?” Lancer wondered mostly to himself.

**Maddie: Okay, two more days, and it's done!**

Right. This was when she finished the Fenton Ghost Finder. Maddie watched as Jack happily took it from her and activated it. The machine started up with a feminine voice telling them that there was a ghost nearby. As Jack walked closer to Danny, the machine kept reading him as a ghost. Which now that she was paying attention, Danny seemed frightened and apprehensive about. Now that she thought about it, most of their inventions seemed to affect Danny in some way. But if her son _was_ a ghost…

Maddie shook her head. No. There was no way she was going down that line of thought. “Danny can’t be a ghost. He can’t be…”

“Mads, he can turn invisible and intangible…” Jack said. His voice was softer than anyone had ever heard it. “He might not be a ghost, but you can’t deny that those are ghost powers he’s sporting.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense! Humans can’t have ghost powers. In order for that to be possible, he’d have to have a massive level of ectoplasmic contamination. Enough to kill him. Ectoplasm and DNA aren’t compatible. Or…” She paused, momentarily lost in thought, “Well, I’ve just assumed that ectoplasm and DNA weren’t compatible. The components are both so different. I never considered the possibility that ectoplasm could _bind_ to DNA. How would that even work?”

**_On screen, Danny’s body went completely invisible as he backed up against the kitchen wall. He remained invisible for a few seconds before managing to return to the land of the visible with a look of resignation on his face._ **

**Danny: Actually...I need to tell you guys something.**

“Wait, he was going to tell us what was wrong? Why didn’t he?” Maddie wondered.

**Jazz: That's not all you need, Danny.**

**_Jazz steps in between Danny and their parents, interrupting him and stopping him from confessing whatever his secret was._ **

**You need guidance, and parents who can provide it.**

“Oh…” Maddie almost wanted to laugh. No doubt Jazz thought she was helping her brother, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. 

**Maddie: Sweetie, I know what we do doesn't make sense sometimes, but you're only-**

**Jazz: Sixteen. Biologically!**

**_Danny backs away while Jazz prattles on, but she ends up dragging him back and holds him close. His expression shows exactly how uncomfortable he was with the situation._ **

**But psychologically, I'm an adult! And I will not allow your insane obsession with ghosts to pollute the mind of this impressionable little child! Come, you abused, unwanted wretch. I'll drive you to school.**

**_She gives her parents one last glare before dragging her brother off to school._ **

A few people couldn’t help but snicker at the interaction between the Fenton children and their parents. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama already knew how mature Jazz was. To see her taking initiative in her home life wasn’t shocking. Knowing she was potentially raising her brother on top of schoolwork, exams, and college applications was shocking though and neither could figure out how well that sat with them.

“Are we really that obsessed with ghosts?” Maddie asked. Immediately she felt the weight of everyone’s eyes on her, judging her for even asking such a ridiculous question.

“You really need to ask?” Pamela scoffed. She pointed at the screen which showed Maddie looking suspicious of Jazz for some unknown reason.

**Maddie: Huh. That's weird. Jasmine never offers to drive Danny to school.**

**Jack: That can only mean one thing. That's not our daughter...that's a ghost. Danny, no! It's a trap!**

“Really? And you had to ask if you were ‘too obsessed’ with ghosts? Your daughter just offers to drive your son to school and you’re ready to attack her for being a ghost. Meanwhile it apparently seems that your son _is_ a ghost and you both were too dense to figure it out.”

“I’ve gotta agree with Pam here,” Angela said, shaking her head in disappointment, “There’s nothing out of the ordinary about Jazz agreeing to drive Danny to school. They go to the same school. Maybe this happens to be one of the rare times when they’re both ready at the same time to go together. Maybe she just felt she needed to get him away from all the ghost talk and into a vaguely normal atmosphere. Who knows? The fact that you jumped to the conclusion that she had to be a ghost is pretty silly.”

“Pamela also brings up an interesting point though,” Maurice adds, “It’s not like they were wrong about one of their kids being a ghost. They were just wrong about which kid, but if Danny’s sporting ghostly abilities...does that mean he died? Because if he’s actually a ghost, that means he died at some point. He died and none of us noticed…”

The auditorium fell silent. No matter how unobservant the Fentons were, no one could fathom them not noticing when one of their children died. Though this ghost that took Danny’s place seemed to seamlessly fit into his life. No one could tell the difference. Did Sam know? Did Tucker know? How could no one figure out this boy was fundamentally different?

A sharp bark of laughter breaks the growing solemn mood.

“He’s not dead,” Valerie rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest. Her voice softened. “He’s not...I have a theory. Just...He’s not dead though. That much I know.”

**Danny: It's been a month since the accident and I still have barely any control! If somebody catches me, I go from geek to freak around here!**

Accident?

“What accident?” Lancer asked, “What’s he talking about?”

**_Halfway through his sentence, Danny begins sinking into the floor._ **

**Tucker: Kinda like what you're doing right now?**

**_Once he notices, he panics. Sam and Tucker help him up and luckily the lower half of his body regains its corporeality._ **

“The only accident we know about is something with our ghost portal. But he said it wasn’t that serious. That he got a bit of a static shock. Jack and I wanted to check for ecto-contamination, but he insisted it wasn’t that serious. He...didn’t want to go through with it…”

Her voice trailed off. At the time, Maddie took Danny’s dismissal as frustration and annoyance, however if he was aware he was undergoing these ghostly changes he’d be afraid. Terrified. He wouldn’t know what decontamination would do to him and he wouldn’t want to find out. If ectoplasm was part of his genetic makeup, ‘decontaminating’ him wouldn’t help at all. 

**Danny: Gah, darn it! If my dad can invent something that accidentally made me half-ghost, why can't he invent something that turns me back to normal?**

“ _Pride and Prejudice! Half_ -ghost?!” Lancer exclaimed.

Sharp gasps and hushed murmurs washed over them. The majority of the audience sat in stunned silence with Jack and Maddie being the most stunned of them all. It’s not every day they’d find out the child they loved dearly is a ghost. Partially anyways. Not only that, but he was apparently a ghost due to something they invented.

“The portal accident…” Maddie gasped. Her eyes widened and her hands trembled as she brought them up to her mouth. “He lied to us about what really happened. But what if...he didn’t completely...oh god…”

“But...I don’t understand...How could the portal make him half ghost?”

“Think about it, Jack.” Maddie’s voice quivered. “Danny...he only told us what he wanted us to know. He deliberately left out a major part of the story. Yes, he was shocked, but he never told us how badly he was shocked. He lied about that. Which mean...he wasn’t...wasn’t just shocked…” 

This time, Jack’s eyes grew wide with recognition. “He was electrocuted. Oh god, Maddie! It could’ve killed him! We could’ve lost out boy!”

“That doesn’t make sense!” Pamela cut in, “I mean, as much as I never wanted Danny around Samantha, I wouldn’t wish for him to be injured. But...people who are electrocuted...don’t they usually have scarring or burns? That portal of yours is massive and I’d imagine it takes a ludicrous amount of power so for him to be electrocuted by it...shouldn’t he bear some scars from that?”

“Besides, how would that make him half ghost?” Jeremy added, “That doesn’t make sense! How does being half ghost even work?”

Valerie rolled her eyes, albeit half heartedly. “It works just as it’s described. Half human. Half ghost. It doesn’t make logical sense, but then again, what does in this town?” A humorless chuckle escaped her lips. “Of course, you’d be him…” she whispered to herself, “Shoulda seen it before…”

“What do you mean?” Damon asked, confused, “Who would he be?”

For a second her eyes met Vlad’s. She saw them flash red. A warning most likely. Not that she was going to be the one to reveal any secrets. This televised version of Danny’s life would do that on its own.

She shook her head. “Nothing. Just...I have a feeling you’re all gonna learn something more shocking about Danny...I’m not gonna be the one to spill it though.”

**“...end. The school board finally agreed to try a new cafeteria menu. I wore them down.”**

Sam’s voice cut through the weighted mood growing in the air. Everyone focused on the screen as it cut to the cafeteria and a sign that read “Ultra Recyclo Vegetarian Week”.

“Oh god, this!?” Dash exclaimed.

“I still can’t believe that freak tried to make us eat dirt!” Paulina scoffed.

“What?!” her father turned to her, furious on her behalf. 

“I believe this is the time Ms. Manson got us to try a...new menu for the week,” Lancer said, “It worked about as well as you would expect. This is also the first time, I believe, Mr. Fenton was in serious trouble for starting a food fight.”

“What?!” Jack and Maddie shrieked in unison. 

**Tucker: What have you done?!**

**Sam: Tucker, it's time for a change.**

“Not to this!” Nathan shuddered.

**_The scene cuts back to the Fenton home, to their lab where a female ghost that looked like a lunch lady comes out their portal._ **

**Lunch Lady: Ooh! Somebody changed the menu!**

**_The Lunch Lady phases out the ceiling and passes by Jack and Maddie as they continue work on a new invention._ **

“How in the world did you miss a ghost in your home? Don’t you have weird ghost sensing inventions all over the place?” Angela wondered.

“We do now, but at the time we didn’t have much. Plus we usually kept the alarms off when we were in the house,” Maddie answered. She cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. “What I want to know is how she knew something at the school changed. Can ghosts sense that?”

“Possibly?” Jack questioned, “I mean the ghost kid sure seems to know when there’s a ghost around so maybe that’s how he shows up in time. But it doesn’t seem like other ghosts sense things pertaining to their obsessions.”

“Wait!” Dash interrupted, “All that stuff that happened was ‘cause of a ghost?”

“It would appear so, Mr. Baxter,” Lancer sighed. 

**Maddie: But what if Jazz isn't a ghost? What if we accidentally hurt her?**

**Jack: Maddie, the Fenton Xtractor doesn't hurt humans...unless it gets in your hair...**

**_He turns the device on himself and it sucks up his already short hair, ripping a good amount of it from his scalp. He screams bloody murder for a couple seconds before immediately calming down._ **

**...See?**

Half the audience gasped and winced, flinching in their seat as they watched (or averted their gaze from) the sight. At least Jack had enough sense to look apologetic. In retrospect, trying to use an untested ghost weapon on their very much human daughter was a mistake. In retrospect, thinking their very human daughter who never once triggered one of their ghost weapons was a ghost was definitely a mistake.

**_The scene cuts back to the school cafeteria where Danny inspects a piece of the bread with grass, debating whether or not if he wants to eat it._ **

**Danny: Don't you think this is a little extreme, Sam?**

“Wait, that’s what you all were serving to our kids? Is that really what Sam suggested as vegetarian options?” Angela gasped, wrinkling her nose at the sight.

“No wonder that ghost attacked,” Vlad sneered under his breath. Pamela narrowed her eyes at him, though ultimately she felt the same. She hoped her daughter wasn’t forcing these god awful mockeries of food on her fellow students anymore. Hell, she hoped she wasn’t eating this way anymore. Sam was aware of actual vegetarian and vegan options...wasn’t she?

**_She smiles, looking like she was going to respond, but a hand on her shoulder preemptively cuts her off._ **

**Mr. Lancer: Ah, Miss Manson. The school board wanted me to personally thank you for ushering in this welcome experiment to our cafeteria.**

**_Tucker begins frantically sniffing the air around the teacher. Lancer starts backing away as Tucker glares at him._ **

**Tucker: Meat. Near.**

“Ummm...the hell?” Valerie raised a brow and cocked her head sideways slightly.

“He’s...a little eccentric, I guess,” Angela chuckled, realizing that was a massive understatement. 

**Mr. Lancer: No, no. The rumors about the new all-steak buffet in the teacher's lounge are completely untrue.**

**_He pulls out a toothpick, uses it, and addresses Sam one last time._ **

**Thanks again.**

“You didn’t…” Maurice gasped.

“While our kids were forced to eat grass and dirt?!” Pamela fumed. She stood and turned to walk right up towards Lancer and Principal Ishiyama, ready to chew them out for allowing this. Her husband gently grabbed her hand and shook his head. 

**Tucker: Yeah, thanks again for making us eat garbage, Sam.**

**Sam: It's not garbage. It's recyclable organic matter.**

**Danny and Tucker: It's garbage.**

**_The cafeteria worker makes sure no one’s watching her as she takes a burger out her pocket and goes off to eat it. Moments later, the Lunch Lady appears, notices the “Ultra Recyclo Vegetarian” menu, and glares. The scene cuts back to Danny, still debating on whether or not to eat the ‘food’, before that blue mist comes out his mouth again._ **

**Danny: Uh, guys? I've got a problem.**

Again, Maddie perks up at the sight of that strange mist like breath coming from her son. “Wait...each time that happens, a ghost is either near or it shows up,” she notes, “Can...can Danny sense where ghosts are? The other ghostly abilities make sense. However, I’ve never known a ghost to sense the whereabouts of other ghosts. It’s not really a power that makes much sense for them.”

**_A glob of mud hits him in the back of the head._ **

**Dash: FENTON!**

**Danny: Make that two problems.**

Maddie’s eyes widened.

**_Dash storms up to Danny holding a plate of what looks like a pile of mud._ **

**Dash: I ordered three mud pies. Do you know what they gave me? Three mud pies. With mud. From the ground! All because of your girlfriend!**

“And what does Danny have to do with that? What gave you any right to treat my son that way?” Maddie snarled, turning to meet the obnoxious jock’s eyes. 

Dash flinched, but quickly schooled his expression. He crossed his arms over his chest and defiantly narrowed his eyes. “And? It was his stupid girlfriend’s fault we had to deal with eating garbage. Someone had to pay for it!”

“Again, what did Danny have to do with that?” she growled. Her attention turned towards Dash’s father. “Did you know your son was bullying mine? Have you been condoning this? And the school!” She looked up towards Lancer, Principal Ishiyama, and the other faculty members. “Do you all just let this happen? Is it because Dash is part of the football team?”

“I assure you we take measures to ensure our students safety,” Lancer said, though there was a slight tremble in his voice, “Sometimes we do miss incidents unfortunately.”

“Yeah right,” Mikey mumbled, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms tightly over his chest.

**Dash: Whatever!**

**_He tosses Danny at the table and throws down the plate of mud._ **

**Eat it. _All_ of it.**

**_For a moment, Danny look like he’s about to eat some of the topsoil. That is until his ghost sense goes off and he notices the ghost of a lunch lady behind the counter._ **

**Danny: Uhh...Ummm…**

**_He looks down at the plate in front of him and seemingly comes up with a plan._ **

**Garbage fight!**

“So that’s what happened…” Lancer gasped. It was unlike Danny to just start a food fight out of nowhere. Granted this reason wasn’t completely logical either, but he supposed he could understand the thought process behind the action.

**Danny tosses the topsoil plate at Dash’s face and other students join in. A massive food fight breaks out.**

**Sam: It's not garbage! It's–**

**_Danny pulls her back towards the floor and he, Sam, and Tucker crawl back towards the kitchen. While he’s crawling, Danny turns back to look towards Dash who looks furious._ **

**Dash: You're gonna pay for this, Fenton!**

**_More muddy topsoil hits Dash in the back of the head._ **

**Danny: Great. I'm still his favorite.**

“Wait,” Maurice interrupted, “why’re they going after the ghost? I mean even with the few ghost abilities Danny seems to have, they don’t really have anything to fight ghosts with, do they?”

“No...at least I don’t think he does,” Maddie pondered. Not to mention Danny didn’t really know how to protect himself from ghosts. Being able to go intangible or invisible is one thing. Those are basic ghostly abilities. Danny couldn’t defend himself with just that. 

**Lunch Lady: Hello, children. Can you help me? Today's lunch is meatloaf, but I don't see the meatloaf. Did someone change the menu?**

**_Tucker points a finger in Sam’s direction._ **

**Tucker: Yeah. She did.**

“Oh, Tucker,” Angela groaned, burying her head in the palm of her hand. 

“I can’t believe your son threw our Sammy under the bus!” Pamela exclaimed.

**_Instantly, the Lunch Lady’s anger flared. Her eyes burned red and her hair turned fiery._ **

**Lunch Lady: You changed the menu!? The menu has been the same for _fifty years!_**

Half the audience shrieked and flinched at the ghost’s fury. For someone who resembled a kind grandmother, her presence was terrifying even on a screen. And these three nerdy kids thought they could face her? Danny, maybe, even though he didn’t display any offensive ghostly abilities. But Sam and Tucker? They were sitting ducks. 

**Danny: Get behind me!**

**_Both Sam and Tucker jump behind him._**

**Sam: Wow. I feel safe.**

A few people couldn’t help but chuckle at that. 

**Danny: I’m going ghost!**

Everything that followed seemed to slow time. There was a bright flash of light that formed into a thin ring that circled Danny’s midsection. The ring split and traveled the length of his body changing his white and red tee into something form fitting and black. Well black with white accents. White accents at his waist...his gloves...his shoes...boots… 

Recognition settled in Maddie’s stomach, nauseating her. Because if what she was seeing was true...if her son was...then she and Jack could’ve hurt...no...ki–

She shook her head, refusing to finish the thought. She felt she owed it to Danny to just keep watching as the rings passed over his head, turning his hair snow white and his eyes a brilliant, eerie lime green.

“WHAT?!” Paulina exclaimed, slamming her hands down on the back of the chair in front of her. “There’s no way that...that...loser can be my precious ghost boy!”

Dash, on the other hand, trembled in his seat. “You mean to tell me I’ve been shovin’ Phantom into lockers?! Oh man! He’s gonna kill me! Why hasn’t he killed me already?!”

The auditorium erupted in gasps of awe, shock, and horror. Danny Fenton was undoubtedly alive. Danny Phantom was...a ghost. By definition a creature born from death. Nothing about this made any sense. _Danny_ didn’t make any sense. 

“Maddie,” Jack spoke softer than anyone was used to hearing him, “Danny’s a ghost. Well...part ghost. We could’ve...we almost…”

“I know.” She swallowed the heavy knot forming in her throat. “I just...we...how did we not know? And...all those awful things we’ve said about him. In front of him... _To_ him!”

“You knew this, didn’t you?” Damon turned to Valerie. 

“I had my suspicions already,” she admitted. “After I met another half ghost who...she looks exactly like Pha–Danny. I feel like there’s a story there that I don’t fully know. I just...I wanna know why. Why did he get you fired? Why did he date me? Why bother with protecting this town and people who could care less about him? He’s been running himself ragged tryin’ to juggle school and homework and a social life while fighting ghosts and running from ghost hunters and hiding his secret from...everyone. I just wanna–”

Valerie stopped. A shiver wracked her spine and she wasn’t sure if it was from the odd chill sweeping through the air or the sensation of someone watching them. 

Well...not just “someone” She knew exactly who was there without looking. She knew this ghost’s presence like the back of her hand from long nights of chasing him down in fits of rage. She could feel the waves of fear, anger, anxiety, anger, trepidation, _anger_ rolling off him. The temperature plummeted as fury won out and his cold voice echoed throughout the room.

“What. . .the _hell_. . .is this?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: I had like 40 pages written before I'd gotten a comment that made me kinda wanna rewrite literally everything and try a different route. I would've had this done way earlier if I didn't rewrite everything. Also if I wasn't working on like 3 fursuits, another story, planning art for a Miraculous Ladybug zine, working a part time job, and starting a Pokemon Go/Art related youtube series. Maybe I try to juggle too many things. :P
> 
> The Mystery Meat episode is the only one I'm planning on splitting into two parts just 'cause of how I want this to unravel. The rest of the episodes will be their own separate chapters.


End file.
